Living life in the carpool lane..

We recently attended a Science and Engineering Kid’s Festival.  Because we have young children, we spent a good amount of time in the pre-K section of the event.  There, they had sensory bins for the little toddlers to play with.  K fell in love with the rice bucket.  It was difficult to pry her away to explore more of the event.

In M’s preschool class, during the morning’s open play time, they have a big table that is full of rice and different toys.  M loves spending time at that table.  K stares at it whenever we drop off M, but she’s too short to reach the table.

In true ‘mom’ fashion, I decided to finally create my own.

In my mind, it was perfect.  I could set it up in the dining room.  It could keep them occupied while I prepared dinner.  I could set up the lap top on the dining table and creat blog content.  They’d be safe and in one place and I wouldn’t have to hover.

WRONG.

Yes, the girls can spend up to an hour at the bin just playing around.  M loves to bring in different toys to see how they work in the rice.  K absolutely loves running her fingers through the rice.

While M is used to keeping the rice inside the bin as much as possible, I totally forgot that K is 15 months old and right in the middle of her ‘tornado’ phase.

The second I opened up the bin, K grabbed a handful and emptied it out onto the floor.

Rice everywhere.

The idea of being not having to hover over her flew out the window.

Oh well.

I’ve gotten a few suggestions on how to have a minimal mess with the rice bin, but I would love to see if anyone else has any ideas.

I do admit, the girls LOVE the rice bin.  I’m not even annoyed when I have to sweep up the floor every time!

What other types of sensory bins do you have?  How do you control the mess?